What color is your health?

Welcome to Insights by the Foolish Couple. My name is Andrew, and I am one of the foolish couple.

 I love driving and I’ve been driving since I was 16 years old. I’ve driven in many different states and countries. Now while some of the local traffic rules may be different, one thing is universal across the board.

Traffic lights.

Almost all of them have Red, yellow, and green lights.

Green means go and red means stop.

What about the yellow light?

Well, generally, you are supposed to slow down and stop before the light turns red.

But, nowadays, I’ve noticed that a lot of people actually run the yellow light, sometimes they run right into a solid red light.

Now I don’t have to tell you how dangerous that is. I’ve known multiple friends and family, myself included that had car accidents because of people running red lights.

But did you know that the different color traffic lights can apply to your health too?

Are you on a GREEN light? Or are you seeing Yellow lights in your health?

These yellow lights are symptoms and include headaches, joint pains, not able to sleep well, brain fog, weight gain, weight loss, change in complexion and change in metabolism. There may be a wide variety of symptoms, but they are all yellow lights signaling you to stop.

Your body is telling you to stop living your life with your current lifestyle and routines. It’s telling you to make a change, to evaluate your situation and to bring your health back to the GREEN light.

Have you ever clearly evaluated how healthy you are?

Are you seeing yellow lights?

Here are a few things you should take into consideration when you evaluate your health situation:

How well do you sleep?

How well do you move?

How is your energy level throughout the day?

How is your appetite?

How regular are your Bowel Movements?

How strong do you feel?

And most importantly, how often do you need to take painkillers or other medication?

 If you were to assign your health level, what would it be?

GREEN? Meaning that you are totally healthy and happy. You look younger than your age, you have boundless energy, with no problems in mobility or strength exercises. In other words, you love your body.

If you are GREEN,  congratulations, less then 5% of the population are truly healthy!

Be honest with yourself. After all, this is your body, not mine, not anyone else’s.

What are you doing right?

How do you intend to stay GREEN?

Are you YELLOW? You have health concerns; you have aches and pains and maybe even restricted flexibility, mobility and strength. You are overweight or obese.  You are taking some form of pain medication occasionally. You struggle with your sleep and then you struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

If you are YELLOW, you are not alone.

The majority of the adult population is Yellow, and most of them don’t even see the yellow lights. But it is still possible to get back to the Green zone.

What are you willing to do to move back into GREEN?

Or are you already feeling sorry for yourself? Are you already loading up with excuses?

What or who do you blame for your health?

Are you telling yourself that you are too old, too young, too tired, too busy, too stressed, or that you have no money, no time, no idea how or no support to change your health situation? Are you blaming your parents for bad genes, your kids for keeping you up at night, your boss for making you work late into the night or your wife for cooking unhealthy foods?

Or, are you RED? Are you certifiably sick? Do you go in and out of the hospital? Do you frequently visit your doctor? Have you been diagnosed with a degenerative disease such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, Parkinson’s or dementia? When you are in the RED, you cannot function or get through the day without medication and you are constantly in pain. You feel unhappy, unable to control your health situation and  unable to do what you love to do. You hate your body, you hate your life and you feel helpless and frustrated.

If you are RED, be really honest with yourself, and don’t accept any excuses.

Look, if you are overweight because you ate too much, you can’t blame the restaurant. You are the one putting the food into your mouth!

So stop with the blaming and complaining.

Really ask yourself:

How did you get here? What did you do wrong and for how long?

How do you intend to get out of the RED zone? Do you even WANT to?

What are you willing to give up to get back into the GREEN zone?

What can you NOT do because you are RED?

Truth is, most people don’t take any action when they are in YELLOW. They start to blame their health issues on old age, past injuries, bad genes from parents, stress, work, or any other excuse they could think of.

These excuses are just that: Excuses.

There are many people that defy age and manage to stay GREEN well into their 80’s.

There are people with no arms and no legs that can still climb mountains.

There are old people who has never ran a mile in their lives, but with proper training, were able to run marathons in their 60’s.

So stop the blaming, and start taking charge of your health.

I ask all my clients to evaluate their health situation during our first consultation session and it is amazing what they tell me.

About 50% of them will tell me that their health is in the green zone, and that they are coming to see me for a couple of lessons to brush up on their health skills, to stay updated and to make them accountable for their health.

40% will tell me they are in the yellow zone. They feel horrible and need a change to feel young again, to be able to enjoy life. After working hard for so many years to accumulate money, they finally have the time and the money, but they no longer have the energy or the strength to do what they enjoy.

The last 10% are the most truthful ones. The ones truly in the red zone and they know it. They are extremely overweight, they look many years older than they should and their energy level is non-existent. These are the ones looking for a miracle to happen, willing to do anything to even get back into the yellow zone let alone back into the green zone.

The funny thing is, many people choose to ignore the signs. They refuse to see the yellow light and they refuse to believe that they are not as strong or healthy as they think. The reality is of the 50% who think they are in the green zone, only about 5% are truly healthy; the remaining 45% are actually yellow. That makes a total of about 85% of my clients that are in the yellow zone, some are aware and others ignorant ignoring the signs.

For the questions I ask:

How well did you sleep? If you had less than 7 hours of restful sleep every night, then your body is not repairing itself properly. That’s a yellow light.

How well do you move? Can you walk for a mile, without taking any pain medication or walk up and down just a couple flights of stairs? If you can’t, that’s a yellow sign. Are you only taking about 2-3000 steps a day?  That’s just not enough, moving your body daily is essential. Walking is the easiest way to activate your lymphatic system, which helps your body detox. So make sure you take more steps!

How’s your energy level? If you can’t function without a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, then that’s a sign. It's worst if you need more coffee, energy drinks, or sugary drinks throughout your day. The best beverage you can have is pure, clean water. It hydrates you, keeps your complexion clear and cleanses your system.

How’s your appetite? Are you constantly hungry? Are you really hungry or is it your body telling you that you are missing some key nutrients in your body? Maybe you are just dehydrated!

How regular are your bowel movements? Without going into too much disgusting detail, some people only have this once a week. I hope you know that that is not normal. And your body is storing a lot of toxins as a result.

How strong do you feel? When you are healthy, it doesn’t matter if you are a guy or a girl, young or old, you should be able to easily do 10 pushups, crunches and hold a plank for 30 seconds. These are core muscles that help you move, stand and sit properly. Have you notice how kids can easily do all three of these exercises? Do you see big muscles or six packs on kids? No, they are exercises that everyone should be able to do easily if you are healthy.

And, of course, if you regularly take any form of prescription medication, you are not healthy.

When you are truly healthy, your body can repair itself when it is fed and maintained properly. And you can still get to GREEN anytime even if you are already in the YELLOW or even RED zone.

To learn more how you can improve your health, check out our free Series, “Time for Health” here!

Till next time, Love what you Live and Live what you Love!

***Andrew is a serial entrepreneur and nutrition coach, with 30 years as a self-start business expert.

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Over the last few years, we worked hard to acquire new knowledge, and we took some time to decide where our hearts lie. This year, it is time to put that knowledge into good use. Publish all that we’ve learnt and release that to the public. We want to address an issue that was becoming a pandemic in this world, an issue that is close to our hearts.

We are cooking up something. And we spent our entire week on thinking, positively procrastinating, discussing, learning the trade, and devising our plan of action. One of the lessons that we learned from our past was that, the ultimate goal of a business is not for money, but to build a legacy. Which is why, this time, we’re working on a program that will teach the audience how to get a fighting chance to staying healthy through the years.

Interested? Make sure you’re on our email list here and we’ll keep you on the loop! 

[The Foolish Couple, (Andrew and Minna), are Jack Canfield certified success coaches and founder of the Foolish Academy, focusing on Healthy lifestyle and Relationships.]